


The Beatles Unreleased

by Erwinnitall



Category: The Beatles (Band)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erwinnitall/pseuds/Erwinnitall
Summary: In between Sergeant Peppers and the White Album the Beatles found time to record yet another album which they named 'the Unreleased'. They locked it up in a vault and set a date for the release. That moment is now. Read everything about the opening of the vault, the material that came out of it and read reviews of the songs on the Album. All completed with backgroundinformation, all about your favorite band.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: The Beatles





	The Beatles Unreleased

The Beatles. Not just a group of four young men from all around Liverpool. They’re iconic, a brand name, an inspiration to generations of starting and renowned musicians. And, in this day and age, still growing in popularity with the releases of remastered albums and films written based on their discography. There’s still enough to enjoy for the most die hard fan. And, hold on to your seats, just when you thought there’s nothing new coming from the FabFour since the release of Free as a Bird (a raw demo of a song by John, beautifully completed by Paul, in true Lennon/McCartney style in 1995), YOU’RE WRONG!

This will be news making the frontpages of many newspapers around the globe. The Beatles are releasing a brand new album on the 20th of may this year. Read it again. The Beatles are releasing a brand new album on the 20th of may this year! And we’re not talking about the remaining Beatles as in Paul and Ringo. The new album contains the voices and musical talents of all the members of the Beatles, including the late John Lennon and George Harrison. This news is official and has been confirmed by all surviving members including Yoko Ono and by the releasing company Sony/ATV who gained the rights to the Beatles’ music after the famous sale by the late Michael Jackson. 

An album by the Beatles. It’s something to look forward to. And that’s just what we, the public, will have to do until release on the 20th later this month. There are although a lucky few who have been able to sit down and take in what we are craving to hear. More about that later. Here’s the backdrop to all this exciting news. 

When I mentioned, earlier before, that the Beatles are about to release a brand new album, I was both right and wrong at the same time. You see, there will be a release of a new Beatle album, new to us, but in reality over 50 years old. The album was, lo and behold, recorded in between Sgt Peppers and the White Album. It was an idea that originated in Johns head and was inspired by the adding of a Beatles album to the Westinghouse time capsule on the fairground site in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, in 1965. (Set to be opened in the year 6939, a mere 5000 years after a neighbouring timecapsule was buried. That one for example is carrying a handwritten letter by Albert Einstein.) John liked the idea about the timecapsule so much that he started to discuss the plan of creating a Beatle time capsule album with Paul. The plan was to create an entire album, produce it and then store it away in a vault for a set number of years. He said ‘Nobody gets to hear it in this day and age. It’s the sound of way back when released in the future. Will it stand the test of time?’ From what we know Paul was immediately taken by the idea.

(Note: All information that forms the core of this article is based on logs, rehearsal recordings, official recordings and notes retreived from said vault on the opening day of May 5th 2020. More on that later on in this writing.)

They decide to record on a specific number of set dates with a small number of staff present. That way the risk of leaking the existence of the time capsule album is reduced to a minimum. All who are working on the album are sworn to secrecy. A signed document from the vault (dated May 30th 1967, only 4 days after the release from Sgt Peppers) states the names of, obviously, The fab four themselves, George Martin (producer and arrangements), Brian Epstein (manager who died 3 months later), and balance engineers Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick, and Ken Scott as most important members of the scheme. Additional musicians, unknowingly working on the record, are given scores and play their parts following tight instructions by George Martin. They are accordingly payed and told in the end that their contribution unfortunately didn’t make the (White) album.

The Beatles are at the peak of their creative capabilities and there’s no shortage of ideas. Raw material and concepts are divided between ‘the White’ and ‘the Unreleased’ (the working title of the time capsule album). There’s so much that some of it was even shelved to later be used on Abbey Road; most notoriously George’s ‘Something’ that was even given up as a Beatles song and sold to Joe Cocker (before, luckily for all of us, minds were changed.)

After completion of the album the whole plan is being put into action and, unknown to millions of fans worldwide, all material disappears in said vault. As mentioned before in a sidenote, this material consists of an enormous amount of documents and recordings. Besides the raw recordings from rehearsal sessions (providing valuable information about such things as internal relationships in the group) and the master tape, even personal notebooks, studiologs, handwritten songtexts and (mainly Johns) scribbles and drawings providing suggestions for the cover, were brought into daylight. Needless to say that there suddenly is enough material to compose a new array of books and shed more light on what was going on behind the FabFour scenes. (Note from the editor: In the upcoming series in which we will be reviewing the album and the songs, we will still have access to aforementioned material and will be using this as our main source to providing relevant background information.)

The official document concerning how to deal with the release of the time capsule album and all its related material was handed over to Brian Epsteins lawyer David Jacobs. He, or anybody that would taken over his duties upon retirement, would be responsible for handling everything according to specified terms. One of these terms was, obviously, the date upon which all material would be released to the public. John proposed the 20th of February 2020, because of the visual symmetry and esthetics, and the futuristic ring to it. Paul suggested to flip the two’s in the months and day notation, turning them into fives. He felt it suited the Beatle approach of things to go against the expected. It’s possible that it’s even a visual presentation of the much used backwinding technique in the recording of their ‘after Pepper’ albums. In the end everybody agreed on this Lennon / McCartney proposal and so the release date was set to May 5th, 2020 e.g. 05052020. 

This magic date is indeed almost a week behind us now. A week where a lot of wheels have been set in motion. Upon release of all material on the 5th it was decided to use this date as a pre-release for the music industry and writing press, to prepare everything for the definitive release to the public and securing all legal terms and conditions (especially Spotify and AppleMusic are currently working overtime to have everything in working order and legally dummyproof). It is therefore that the release date for the general public has been shoved forward to May 20th. (All in agreement with surviving Beatlemembers and other related companies.)

And so a lucky few have been given the opportunity to listen to the album to write the necessary commentary pieces. My colleague Gaelwin von Preder has had the honor to do so and he will guide you through the album from tomorrow on, until the date of release to the public; May 20th. Return to this website to keep yourself well informed and up to date with the most heavy upset in the world of popular music since… well… since Beatlemania happened in the first place.

Come together, right now!

Povel Andre Wingerer  
Rolling Stone Magazine


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